


collective unconsciousness, or finding a third way

by Kylenne



Series: Torn From the Heavens: A Warden Reborn [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, Black Female Character, Crossover, Especially Abuse Survivors, Everybody Lives, F/F, Gisele Surana (OC), Hien/WoL Mention, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, POV Female Character, Polyamorous Character, Pre-Relationship, Redemption Equals Gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24132490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kylenne/pseuds/Kylenne
Summary: Yotsuyu deserved better. Gisele will provide it, by the light of the stars.
Relationships: Yotsuyu goe Brutus/Warrior of Light
Series: Torn From the Heavens: A Warden Reborn [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591174
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	collective unconsciousness, or finding a third way

_Aether is the building block of all that surrounds us, meaning that everything is connected. Someone closely attuned with that aether can, in a sense, link themselves with others, feeling their joy, feeling their pain. Scholars of the soul call this empathy. Crystal-gazers and card-readers call it the wheel of fortune. We astrologians call it collective unconsciousness. Whatever you call it, I feel that bond with you._

Leveva’s words rang as a bell deep within Gisele’s memory; she felt them keenly, as she lowered a gentle gaze upon the woman who was her dire foe not mere moments before. 

And in Yotsuyu’s silvery eyes—the eyes of the kami, the Primal—Gisele spied a mirror: a mirror within which she spied the reflection of the sickly girl-child who ever cowered at the sound of barking hounds, for the torments they would portend, whose tiny stomach knotted for hunger in a hovel more times than could be counted. In those silvery eyes, Gisele saw the child who wept alone in a tower of coldest stone, and woke screaming in the night for a home she would never again know. And Gisele heard the self-same cruelties spat by the architect of this woman’s torment upon the wine stained lips of every lordling who came stumbling drunk into the muddy streets; this was the world she knew, until she was ripped from her mother’s arms and sent to a gilded cage—and that was a kindness, in the end. 

But Gisele had a mother who wept by turns when she was taken; wept in grief, for she loved her more than life itself. In the Circle, she had Irving. She had Victoria—until she was taken from her. She had Niall, and Penelope Amell, and Lily—and even Jowan, fool that he was. In the end, Gisele was not forced to endure life in that gilded cage alone and unloved. In the end, Gisele met Duncan, and her path was laid. 

Yotsuyu had no one. For her, there was naught but pain, and anger. How could Gisele condemn her thus? What if Gisele’s mother had not begged the Templars to leave her child be, but instead sold her to them for a crust of bread? What if she had not met an Irving, or a Duncan? Could she truly say her choices would have been different? Could any elf of Thedas, born to an alienage? Naught but the thinnest of margins separated the two of them; the wheel of fortune spun thus. For one, unspeakable suffering without cease; for another, the mantle of heroine. 

Tears poured from Gisele’s eyes in a river of weeping that would not cease. Grief not merely for gentle Tsuyu, but the woman she once was, and the life denied her. This was not justice, no matter her crimes. This was the cruelest of fates, and Gisele could not abide the thought of it.

“What’s the matter? The witch of Doma will soon be dead,” Yotsuyu said softly, lifting her gaze to meet Gisele’s, with a faintly ironic smile. 

“Tsuyu deserved better,” Gisele said, swallowing hard, to choke back a sob. 

“Her happiness was never to be…not in this world,” Yotsuyu said.

“And what of yours?” Gisele asked softly. 

“It lies with my dead brother upon the floor. What else is there in this world, for one such as I?” 

“There is dango,” Gisele said, trembling. “And there are persimmons. There is the Yanxian sunset. There is Gosetsu, and there is me.” 

Yotsuyu shut her eyes, sighing; the smile upon her lips was genuine. “You, whom the Doman prince counts as his mistress, would offer a hand of friendship…to me?” 

“I would.” 

“Perhaps my dearly departed brother was right in at least one matter: you are an absolute fool of a woman, Gisele Fortemps,” Yotsuyu said. “A lovely, lovely fool. Let me depart with him.” 

“ _I cannot permit it!_ ” Gisele screamed, her anguish cry echoing against towering walls of cold Garlean steel. 

And with her cry, an explosion of light burst forth from Gisele, engulfing them both with a brilliance transcendent. 

In her light, there shone a blanket of blazing stars, burning bright against the shadow of the blackened moon. Gisele lifted her arms, slowly raising her face to the starry heavens she conjured beneath cold Garlean steel, her own tears silenced and burned away before the light. Somewhere, at the edge of her consciousness, she sensed Hien and the others; their shouts were drowned out by the song beating in her ears. Her violet eyes glowed resplendent silver, as she opened her heart, and made of her body a vessel like unto the starry Ewer which blazed before her sight, pouring the light of heaven—the light of compassion—upon this woman who had never once known it, but for a few scant weeks only to see it snatched away. Warmth spread within her, without her, drifting as stardust enveloped them both. 

The black moon shattered, and Tsukuyomi was no more. 

In her place lay Yotsuyu, a woman mortal. Gisele reached down, carefully aiding her as she began to sit up, her strength renewed. Naught but tattered holes remained in her ornate silk robes, where Asahi had shot her; no blood, no scars. She was whole, by Gisele’s power. 

“Why…?” Yotsuyu whispered, her dark eyes filled with quiet awe as they gazed up at Gisele. 

“You did not deserve it,” Gisele whispered softly to her. She took Yotsuyu into her arms, cradling her, drawing a warm palm to rest upon the crown of her raven locks, smoothing her hand down silken strands again and again with soothing strokes. “I do not hate you, Yotsuyu. Your existence is not a sin; it is precious. And you are worthy of kindness, and compassion, and love. It grieves my heart beyond measure that you have never before heard these words spoken…and so I shall speak them until you begin to believe them. I shall not abandon you to cruelest fate. You do not deserve it.” 

The whole of Yotsuyu’s slight body was shaking against Gisele; at last, the cold façade she’d constructed as a means of survival, of strength…it shattered in the power of love she had never known. She clung to Gisele and wept into her shoulder, pouring out a lifetime of grief upon the fine scarlet brocade. It seemed it would not cease, but Gisele remained steadfast as a rock against the crashing waves, holding her gently, whispering again and again: 

_You are worthy. You are loved._

And when the greater storm of Yotsuyu’s weeping passed, Gisele gently pulled away from her, only enough to press full and scarlet lips upon her brow, with the utmost tenderness. She felt her lean into it, the tenseness of her body melted away. 

Yotsuyu’s tearstained gaze met Gisele’s, then, and she reached up with a hand that no longer trembled, pressing her fingertips to Gisele’s cheek. “You are…” she began softly, her voice trailing off. 

“Beautiful? I know, chérie. Tis kind of you nonetheless,” Gisele said, with a winsome smile only faintly impish. 

Yotsuyu’s laughter, rich and warm, echoed across the steel walls. “And utterly insufferable,” she declared, still laughing, and wrapped her arms about Gisele once more, burying her nose into the long line of her neck. 

“I try my best,” Gisele said softly, squeezing her tightly. 

The stars had long faded by the time they rose together, to meet Hien and the others. 

Though the light, it seemed, would remain.


End file.
